


Hymns Upon Your Lips

by sunflowersapphic



Series: The Flicker of the Campfire, The Wind in the Pines [2]
Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: M/M, awkward confessions and first smooches, more of that gay summer camp au, now with ChurchTarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 13:17:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5128994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowersapphic/pseuds/sunflowersapphic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Christopher blushed, glancing away. Focusing on calming his heartbeat down and listening to the sound of the frogs and crickets around them, he tried to not think about all of the implications behind what James had said."</p><p>Camp counselors James Church and Chris Thomas sneak out to the lake past curfew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hymns Upon Your Lips

**Author's Note:**

> In which I willfully ignore the fact that realistically, canoes are bigger than this and they would be further apart. Regardless, enjoy!

“Are you sure we won’t get caught?” Chris glanced around nervously, following James down past the boathouse and onto the docks.

“I’m the activities coordinator, we can just pass it off as me testing out a new concept. Night canoeing or whatever.” James shrugged, taking Christopher’s hand and squeezing it lightly. “Just trust me.”

Chris sighed and follow quietly, choosing to ignore the hand thing and pulling his jacket tighter around himself. Temperatures might have been fine during the daytime, but there was a reason they told campers to bring extra blankets for night.

James led him to the very end of the docks, walking out onto the finger dock and crouching down to pull a silver canoe closer to himself. “Here, climb in. Remember how I taught you?”

Hesitating and then nodding, Chris lowered himself down into the canoe without much fuss. James followed suit and before they knew it James was paddling them out to the center of the lake. They came to a stop almost perfectly in the middle of the water.

James gently set the paddle in the canoe before smiling and leaning back to get a better view of the night sky. “You know, I do this all the time on my own, but I almost think it’s better with someone else here.”

“Oh?” Chris cocked his head to the side. “And why is that?”

A pause, followed by a shrug. “Can’t exactly say. It’s less lonely, for one thing.”

“Then why haven’t you invited someone to come out with you sooner?”

“Never had the right person before you.”

Christopher blushed, glancing away. Focusing on calming his heartbeat down and listening to the sound of the frogs and crickets around them, he tried to not think about all of the implications behind what James had said.

“James…” Christopher began quietly and carefully, not knowing how to respond. Not knowing how he _wanted_ to respond. “You don’t mean that how I think you do, I hope.”

Immediately Chris felt the regret wash over him. Oh, Heavenly Father, what an awfully large assumption to make. And why exactly did his mind jump to such conclusions anyway? Had he been reading the tone wrong? Had he been reading into James’ actions wrong? It occurred to Christopher for the very first time that perhaps the reason he had thought of all this as being… _romantic_ was because he wanted it to be. Filled with regret and now shame as well, Chris bit his lip hard to keep himself from saying anything else that may dig him deeper into this hole.

The silence seemed to grow with each passing second, seeming to distance the two from each other despite how close they were sitting. Christopher was avoiding eye contact, and James was trying all too hard to regain it. Only minutes were passing, and just barely at that, but minutes feel so much longer when your mind is racing. It would have been a beautiful night were it not for all the tension.

It came as a surprise to them both when James, always the quieter of the two, was the one to cut through the heavy silence. He closed his eyes for a moment as if to gather courage before speaking.

“I do, Christopher, and I think you already knew that. I can’t—,”

Chris had leaned forward and caught his lips in a kiss before he got the rest of it out. It was brief, and it was clumsy, and it was not at all how James had planned it out, but it was good. It was with Chris, and that alone made it good.

Christopher pulled back and they were plunged back into the silence for a small moment before the words came spilling out of the small blond. “I am _so_ sorry, gosh, I didn’t mean to I just wanted to try how that would feel and it felt _good_ and I’m sorry for _that_ too and I’m sorry for saying all this and—,” Chris took a deep breath and stopped himself. “And I don’t know where I was going with that.”

James smiled widely, reaching forward to take Christopher’s hand. “You don’t need to apologize for that. Please, _please_ don’t apologize for that. I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but I’ve been waiting for that for an awful long time. Several summers, actually.” He laughed, placing a light kiss to Christopher’s knuckles. “I didn’t expect you would be the first one to make the plunge, though.”

Chris blushed, returning the infectious smile. “If we’re being honest it wasn’t even something that was on my mind until tonight. I didn’t even know I liked boys…” his smile faded as he trailed off. “Oh, no, I _can’t_ —I mean, I _don’t_ —,” Chris bit his lip. “James I don’t know what this means for me.”

James reached forward, this time taking both of Chris’s hands in his own. “It means that you like _me_ , at least, and that’s all you have to focus on right now. You can worry about the rest later. God knows that’s how I’ve been dealing with it.” He smiled gently.

A pause, and then a hesitant nod. “Okay. Okay, alright, I can do that. Just focus on… you.” Chris smiled. “I can focus on you.” He leaned in to kiss James once more—this time with more hesitance, but also more tenderness and feeling behind it.


End file.
